Church woman embracing unknown artist (7)
I believe the answer is:
cezanne
'artist' is the definition.
(I know that Cezanne is a painter)
'church woman embracing unknown' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'woman' becomes 'anne' (woman's name).
'embracing' indicates putting letters inside.
'unknown' becomes 'z' (algebra).
'ce'+'anne'='ceanne'
'ceanne' going around 'z' is 'CEZANNE'.
(Other definitions for cezanne that I've seen before include "French artist" , "Painter of the 'Card Players' series" , "French post-impressionist painter" , "Paul --, French painter" , "French impressionist painter" .)